High Promise Of ‘Father’s Day’ Is Never Fulfilled

It certainly looks like a can’t-miss proposition - a popular French export (1984’s “Les Comperes”) remade as a Robin Williams-Billy Crystal vehicle (their first time starring together in a movie), directed by comedy maven Ivan Reitman from an adaptation by Lowell Ganz & Babaloo Mandel (“City Slickers,” “A League of Their Own”).

Yet somehow, and surprisingly, the promising elements never quite add up in “Father’s Day.” Williams and Crystal (ranked Nos. 1 and 21, respectively, in a recent listing of the 50 funniest people alive), only occasionally manage to generate the anticipated kinetic comic chemistry.

The rest of the time the actors and their director seem somewhat out of sync with each other, causing the entire picture to feel off a beat or two.

Assigned to the roles played by Gerard Depardieu and Pierre Richard in the French version, Crystal and Williams are unwittingly brought together by a mutual old flame (Nastassja Kinski) to search for her runaway teenage son after each are informed that he is the boy’s natural father.

The two couldn’t be more different. Jack Lawrence (Crystal) is a short-tempered, successful Los Angeles attorney, while Dale Putley (Williams) is a manic-depressive, struggling writer who has made something of a career out of attempted suicides. But with their hitherto untapped paternal instincts now turned up to high, the pair embark on a common cause to bring their potential son back home and determine who’s the real daddy.

“Father’s Day” is not without its share of amusing moments, but every time it looks as if the picture is going to finally take off, it falters again. Williams plays a more subdued character than audiences are probably expecting. If the part had allowed for a few more of those vintage manic outbursts, there would have been more for Crystal’s determined-to-be-in-control character to play off. As it is, both are fine individually, but together they only hint at the kind of collaborative, loosely improvisational spark they’ve demonstrated during those “Comic Relief” specials.

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: “Father’s Day” Locations: East Sprague, Newport, Coeur d’Alene, Post Falls Six and Showboat Cinemas Credits: Directed by Ivan Reitman, starring Robin Williams, Billy Crystal, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Nastassja Kinski, Charlie Hofheimer, Bruce Greenwood, Charles Rocket, Patti D’Arbanville Running time: 1:39 Rating: PG-13